Professor Tao Liu obtained his BA degree (2000) from the University of Science and Technology in China, and his PhD (2007) degree from University of Pennsylvania in the United States. He was awarded a McCormick Fellowship (2007-2010) to pursue post-doctoral research at the Enrico Fermi Institute in University of Chicago, and then worked as a post-doctoral fellow (2010-2013) at University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined the Department of Physics of the HKUST in 2013. Prof Liu received the School of Science Research Award in 2016.

Professor Liu is dedicated to addressing some of the most fundamental questions in Nature: What is dark matter in the Universe? Why is there more baryonic matter than antimatter in the Universe today? How do elementary particles in the Universe interact with each other, and if they are massive, how do they obtain their mass? Does there exist a unified fundamental theory to describe the Nature?

His research program involves developing theories at both phenomenological and ultraviolet-complete levels to address these questions. In connection to experiments, his research program involves devising strategies to test these candidate theories, studying potential of discovering physics beyond the Standard Model at Large Hadron Collider, and exploring physics targets for colliders of next generation, such as Higgs factory and hadron collider with a higher energy scale. His research program will help reveal the fundamental rules governing the Nature.